We finally went on a vacation....

So we finally went on a much needed vacation. Our last house went under contract and we closed the day we left. YEAH!!!! We have been doing so many houses and Jake has been working full time we really haven't had a chance to have an adult only vacation in a long time. Jakes parent watched the kids, thanks mom and dad, so we were able to enjoy a week long cruise. We even meet some great friends from Brigham City, Utah who were our same age. Thanks Tami and Trevor for making our cruise so fun!

Puerto Rico

Our cruise left from Puerto Rico so we were able to see a little of the city before we left. This is the really old fort that has been there forever. Parts of it were even renovated and use in World War II. It was lots of fun because it was huge and you could walk and crawl into anything!

St. Thomas

Our first stop was St Thomas. I wasn't too impressed with this overly crowded Island. It really wasn't kept up well. We took a walking tour of down town that was real disappointing. But these are the really old 99 stairs. The water was beautiful and we did step into a few jewlery stores, just to make Jake sweat a little :)

Dominica

This is a water fall that a ton of people go see. But the boulders you have to climb to get there are as big as you. There were about 300 people there and there were only 6 of us that made it to the falls. And out of all those 300 people my monkey of a husband was the only one to climb to the top of the big rock under the falls. And yes he did ask me if he could jump off.... and I gave him the look like are you crazy. We even took our snorkel gear and saw a bunch of fish and a few crabs in the water below.

Hiking up the stream to the falls...




Here he is swimming to the rock...Jake at the top of the rock...



We saw a bunch of sulfur boiling pots. Here you can see the smoke coming out of the jungle.

They stunk really bad and made me kind of sick. But I guess they have "healing" powers because the crazy tourist can buy the sulfur mud in jars to rub on there body. I can think of about a million other things to rub on my body that would smell a lot better :)
The base of a huge ficus tree on the Island. People were even swinging from the vines.
A bus that had a tree fall on it in a hurricane in 1980. They just left it here and the tree is still growing.
Here are some of the best black sand beaches. The waves were great because it went really deep really fast so we could ride the waves in with just our bodies. But you had to catch the waves just in time. I just about drowned twice. Salt water in your sinuses doesn't feel that great. But it was so fun and was totally worth it!


A visitor that came to see me when I was laying out on the beach.

Grenada

Here is a picture of Grenada. It is called the island of spice. Jake took a picture of me looking at all the spices that I bought there. I talked to these little old native women who were so cute. I learned so much about Nutmeg and Mace and a ton of other spices they grow on the island. It is really neat to see how spices are grown.

Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles

These are the beaches in Bonaire. This side of the Island had really neat beached it wasn't sand it was just a ton of old white coral.




Here is a picture of Jake trying to wind surf, he got pretty good. It is really hard you have to balance and judge how the wind is going to throw you around. I got up twice but not for long. This part of the Island was a really neat bay. It was white sand and water up to your waste with strong winds and the water was so warm. You would walk around and fish were going under your feet. It was really a neat spot.

These are the salt farms. This Island is Dutch owned and they flood the southern part with sea water. Then it dries out in the sun turning the water pink as you see in the picture then they harvest it when it is all dry and sell it as sea salt.

Aruba

In Aruba we went deep sea fishing. It was insane! We went to the tip of the island were the ocean is like black because it is so deep. And I have this fear of sharks, silly I know, but I got a little nervous when our guide told us that his father swam in these water and was bit four times by a shark. The waves was as big as our two story fishing boat. Going out there was crazy because we were going up and down and I was literally holding on for dear life. But I did really good with sea sickness considering my condition but Jake..... He lost everything just for about five minutes and then went right back to fishing. That boy is obsessed! But we caught 6 Wahoos and lost about 10. But once I got over my fear of the crazy sea and riding the waves it was really fun. It was definitely the biggest fish I have ever caught.







Well now back to reality.......